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KCOS (TV)
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KCOS (TV)
KCOS (channel 13), branded as PBS El Paso, is a PBS member television station in El Paso, Texas, United States, owned by Texas Tech University. The station's offices are located on Viscount Boulevard (northeast of I-10) in east El Paso, and its transmitter is located atop the Franklin Mountains on the El Paso city limits. Its nominal main studio is located at Texas Tech-owned KTTZ-TV in Lubbock.
Efforts to start a public television station in El Paso had flickered on and off in the 1960s but took shape in the early 1970s with the formation of the El Paso Public Television Foundation. A construction permit for the station was issued in 1975, and KCOS began broadcasting on August 18, 1978. It originally aired on channel 7 until a July 1981 channel swap with KVIA-TV, then on channel 13; the swap was part of an agreement by which KVIA-TV donated use of its transmitter facility to the public station. KCOS persevered despite several fiscal crises and low public support. In 2019, Texas Tech Public Media absorbed KCOS, continuing to operate it as an El Paso–focused public TV station.
Channel 7 was the originally-allocated channel for non-commercial television service in El Paso. The first discussions of starting a station to use it came in late 1962, when a group met to consider the formation of a non-profit entity to promote its establishment. This group, the Rio Grande Council on Educational Television, began raising $500,000 in order to build a transmitter site on the Franklin Mountains. However, these plans soon were put on hold, as it was felt that there were more important community projects. The Council, however, continued to exist, and in 1970 the idea met with renewed community interest.
A second organization, the El Paso Public Television Foundation (EPPTF), was formed in 1971 by a group of business leaders with the goal of establishing a public station in El Paso, one of the largest cities in the nation without public broadcasting. Under this organization, plans accelerated. The station would be located on the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), while fundraising and awareness-generating activities began in the community. On November 25, the foundation filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking a construction permit for channel 7.
In June 1972, the foundation unveiled a capital plan to raise $275,000 of community support, with the remainder of the $1 million cost coming from the federal government as well as the local and state boards of education. However, the sudden death of Thorne Shugart, vice president in charge of fundraising, caused efforts to stall. By 1974, it was hoped that the station would be on air that year if federal grant money from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) was received in time. That year, John Walton, owner of commercial station KELP-TV (channel 13), donated space on a new KELP-TV tower to the new public television station.
HEW approved the grant at the start of July 1975, though in a smaller than expected amount, and the FCC granted the construction permit on July 16. As part of the agreement with KELP-TV, both groups then proposed a channel swap, moving the public station to channel 13 and KELP-TV to channel 7; a clause in the agreement would give additional funding and technical support to the public station if the FCC approved. The idea of switching the commercial allocation from channel 13 to channel 7 had predated both stations. In 1954, Gordon McLendon, who at the time held the construction permit for channel 13, applied to the FCC for a switch and was denied; he wanted to be located between El Paso's two existing commercial stations, channel 4 and channel 9, on the dial.
Walton's donation was imperiled when he sold KELP-TV to Marsh Media, which renamed it KVIA-TV in 1976. The agreement was renegotiated with Marsh, which introduced a delay; meanwhile, EPPTF needed another $80,000 to cover startup costs. However, KVIA-TV continued to be interested in moving to channel 7, a number used by several other ABC affiliates nationally. Construction of KCOS also took other steps in late 1977 and early 1978, as senior management was hired; KDBC-TV donated two cameras; and the station leased space at UTEP. An eight-hour telethon aired by KDBC-TV, previewing public TV programming and seeking donations to get KCOS started, helped bring the station closer to its fundraising goals.
The transmitting equipment for KCOS was transported to the Franklin Mountains in April 1978. KCOS then began broadcasting on August 18, 1978. On El Paso's cable system, KCOS programming supplanted KNME-TV from Albuquerque when the station was on the air. In December, the station debuted its first local production, the arts program De Art.
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KCOS (TV)
KCOS (channel 13), branded as PBS El Paso, is a PBS member television station in El Paso, Texas, United States, owned by Texas Tech University. The station's offices are located on Viscount Boulevard (northeast of I-10) in east El Paso, and its transmitter is located atop the Franklin Mountains on the El Paso city limits. Its nominal main studio is located at Texas Tech-owned KTTZ-TV in Lubbock.
Efforts to start a public television station in El Paso had flickered on and off in the 1960s but took shape in the early 1970s with the formation of the El Paso Public Television Foundation. A construction permit for the station was issued in 1975, and KCOS began broadcasting on August 18, 1978. It originally aired on channel 7 until a July 1981 channel swap with KVIA-TV, then on channel 13; the swap was part of an agreement by which KVIA-TV donated use of its transmitter facility to the public station. KCOS persevered despite several fiscal crises and low public support. In 2019, Texas Tech Public Media absorbed KCOS, continuing to operate it as an El Paso–focused public TV station.
Channel 7 was the originally-allocated channel for non-commercial television service in El Paso. The first discussions of starting a station to use it came in late 1962, when a group met to consider the formation of a non-profit entity to promote its establishment. This group, the Rio Grande Council on Educational Television, began raising $500,000 in order to build a transmitter site on the Franklin Mountains. However, these plans soon were put on hold, as it was felt that there were more important community projects. The Council, however, continued to exist, and in 1970 the idea met with renewed community interest.
A second organization, the El Paso Public Television Foundation (EPPTF), was formed in 1971 by a group of business leaders with the goal of establishing a public station in El Paso, one of the largest cities in the nation without public broadcasting. Under this organization, plans accelerated. The station would be located on the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), while fundraising and awareness-generating activities began in the community. On November 25, the foundation filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking a construction permit for channel 7.
In June 1972, the foundation unveiled a capital plan to raise $275,000 of community support, with the remainder of the $1 million cost coming from the federal government as well as the local and state boards of education. However, the sudden death of Thorne Shugart, vice president in charge of fundraising, caused efforts to stall. By 1974, it was hoped that the station would be on air that year if federal grant money from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) was received in time. That year, John Walton, owner of commercial station KELP-TV (channel 13), donated space on a new KELP-TV tower to the new public television station.
HEW approved the grant at the start of July 1975, though in a smaller than expected amount, and the FCC granted the construction permit on July 16. As part of the agreement with KELP-TV, both groups then proposed a channel swap, moving the public station to channel 13 and KELP-TV to channel 7; a clause in the agreement would give additional funding and technical support to the public station if the FCC approved. The idea of switching the commercial allocation from channel 13 to channel 7 had predated both stations. In 1954, Gordon McLendon, who at the time held the construction permit for channel 13, applied to the FCC for a switch and was denied; he wanted to be located between El Paso's two existing commercial stations, channel 4 and channel 9, on the dial.
Walton's donation was imperiled when he sold KELP-TV to Marsh Media, which renamed it KVIA-TV in 1976. The agreement was renegotiated with Marsh, which introduced a delay; meanwhile, EPPTF needed another $80,000 to cover startup costs. However, KVIA-TV continued to be interested in moving to channel 7, a number used by several other ABC affiliates nationally. Construction of KCOS also took other steps in late 1977 and early 1978, as senior management was hired; KDBC-TV donated two cameras; and the station leased space at UTEP. An eight-hour telethon aired by KDBC-TV, previewing public TV programming and seeking donations to get KCOS started, helped bring the station closer to its fundraising goals.
The transmitting equipment for KCOS was transported to the Franklin Mountains in April 1978. KCOS then began broadcasting on August 18, 1978. On El Paso's cable system, KCOS programming supplanted KNME-TV from Albuquerque when the station was on the air. In December, the station debuted its first local production, the arts program De Art.